[2.2] Acrobatic Knives - Assassin - Ctri EK/MoM/Phase Acro/VP, Ascendancy skill tree updated.

This is the Ethereal Knives Version of my original 'Acrobatic Arc' build(It's in Witch build list).
With slight change, this build also suits spell (better has at least 5% base critical chance)like arc/Arctic Breath/... etc.
Actually I started this build with Freezing Pulse, it feels great till I saw balance change about multiple projectiles from 'the awakening close beta' http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/post-reply/1248493

"

Qarl wrote:

All projectiles now behave like arrows. Multiple projectiles emitted at exactly the same time can no longer hit the same target. Their area of effect damage can still overlap, dealing damage to the same target multiple times...

Ethereal Knives has nothing to lose by this change, so I decided to give it a try.

'The Awakening' boosts this build a lot:
1. EK now has 0.6s cast speed(was 0.8s in 1.3), 6% base critical chance(was 5%) and 24 mana cost(was 30), quality now gives projectile speed instead of damage!!
2. Vaal Pact now located between shadow and ranger which saved at least 4 skill points(compares to 1.3 tree)
3. Golem gives extra dps/damage reduction.
Together, they bring EK's dps to 76k with over 50% critical chance!!

According to Content Update 2.1.0 Patch Notes EK is buffed with increased damage and projectile speed. And we have more mana/mana regen. I like it. xD
(the following may still contain 2.0 version content, I'll keep updating.)

The frame of this build is almost the same as 2.0.
-Stack Critical strike chance for dps
-Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics node for defense(fair effect at low investment cost)
-Stun avoidance chance and DOT dmg reduction.
-Survive reflect.
etc

Character status lv92.

General:
For the common weakness of low armour build, I use Lightning Coil, Arctic Armour and Chaos Golem to relieve physical damage taken.
And eva type gear + acrobatics/phase acrobatics to evade/dodge attack and spell.
Leo's crafting for DOT defense(shield) and chance to avoid being Stunned(Helmet).
'Practical Application' helps in avoiding interruption from stuns while casting.

Tested with new leech mechanism in 2.0!!
For physical reflection(Assuming 18%):
The goal is to minimize both physical damage output and physical damage taken, and leech as much as you can.

1. Use 'Physical to Lightning' support gem to convert 50% of EK's physical damage to lightning damage, and 'Hrimsorrow Goathide Gloves' to convert another 25% to cold damage. (Though dps drops to 55k.)
2. With 75% lightning resistance, legacy Lightning Coil reduce physical damage reflection to 12.6%. (it's 13.95% for current version of LC).
3. lv19 AA 13%less physical damage taken when hit.(this is for each projectile! by default EK fire 10 projectiles, AA will lessen damage taken caused by each reflection, even if the projectile pierces).
4. Vaal Pact, instant leech.
5. Life leech by lightning DPS(also cold/fire dmg by HoI/HoA) will make up for the physical reflection damage taken to some extent.
6. Phase Acrobatics + Atziri's Step offer 46% chance to dodge reflection.
7. The CWDT set, Immortal Call's physical invulnerability will be triggered frequently(3s cooldown). It usually protects you from reflection caused by repeated casting. And triggered Warlord's Mark gives extra leech.
8. Chaos Golem, 4%(lv12) additional physical damage reduction.
9. Purity of lightning.(optional)

For elemental reflection(Assuming 18%):
1. replace the 'Physical to Lightning' with other support gem(such as added chaos damage or increased critical strike).
2. use low level HoT to do the 'auto-curse' or just turn off hatred and all the herald.
3. replace hatred with haste.

Pros:
-Good survivability.
Great chance to dodge/evade attacks(for a spell caster :P) and 46% chance to dodge spell.
With Vaal grace, 10sec 70+ dual dodge!!
Maximum 60%+ chance to avoid being stunned.
Can do map with elemental/physical reflection.
about dodge see here http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Dodge


-DPS is nice too. xD
around 76K(6L with life leech and HoT + hatred + Flame Golem).


76K with 50.28% crit chance


Far range increased by Projectile Speed. +116%


Cons:
-The angle of EK's arc is fixed, it's annoyed when you are surrounded by melee monsters.
-Pool dps at low level.
-Half regen maps are annoyed.
-Some gear may get in late game
-Damage Over Time is deadly. Though we have LC + AA + Chaos Golem to reduce the initial physical attack damage, thus reducing the damage per second by bleeding, still it kills you in seconds if you run without notice. (especially bleeding + cursed with vulnerability, and bleeding stacking by monsters have 'Corrupting Blood' Nemesis Affixes. Other type of DOT: poison cloud, desecrated ground ). There's a master crafting(Leo's lv3) can reduce damage taken form DOT which can be applied to a shield(see gear section).

Jewel option:

lv90

lv70, Acrobatics

lv50_63points

Bandits:
Normal help Oak/ Cruel kill all(or help Oak)/ Merciless kill all

You can start with shadow/witch/scion.take life, mana, crit, level up as crit spell caster.

. Mana cost per cast(repeat by spell echo does not cost mana) of 6L EK in this build is 74. We need around 160 mana regeneration per second. 'increased maximum mana' from skill tree and '+xx to maximum mana' from gear are very valuable. Also this build has around 120+% increased mana regeneration rate from skill tree and another 120+% from gear.

Atziri's Step and Lightning Coil are core gear to this build.
For the rest of them just grab resistance/life/mana/mana regen as much as you can.
I prefer stacking resistance over 142%, so I still have my resistance cap with lv19 purity of elements while doing 'cursed with elemental weakness' maps.

If you want more life/mana regen, or some defense for DOT, you can play wand + shield.
(Master Leo's lv3 crafting: (10-20)% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time)

If you can manage the elemental resistances with a helmet that still have room for suffix, you can apply Leo's lv5 crafting '25-35% chance to Avoid being Stunned' to the helmet. Combine with 'Heart of Oak' we should have maximum 65% chance to avoid being stunned!


If you have difficulty in reaching 135% resistance, there are some options from skill tree and jewels that could help before you get enough from gear.


and

5L/6L EK

Remove 'Increased Critical Damage' if 5L.
'Physical to Lightning' boosts a lot of DPS and it's one of the keys for dealling with reflection.
If you use BBBGGR or BBBGRR chest, I recommend

amazing clear speed with chain, see 'Test skill combination' section.

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4L #1 CWDT set.
or
Or Warlord's Mark for extra leech.

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4L #2 Vaal Grace / haste / etc

Rallying Cry boosts mana regen and dps during the effect of Vaal haste.
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4L #3 Buff/Aura


On-demand option

Try get a BBGW 4L for this set, easy swap purity of elements(fire/ice/lightning) means better adaptability.
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3L HoT, Curse on hit
or
Critical strikes with lightning damage + HoT + curse on hit = auto curse.
Assassin's Mark offers more critical chance and critical damage on cursed enemies, also has great chance to gain power charges when slain cursed enemies.
Projectile Weakness makes enemies easy to pierce for projectiles which is very helpful when facing packs (especially packs with a monster/totem has 'Allies Cannot Die' aura). It also gives chance to knockback cursed enemies, this is nice for EK though the chance is not that much. And most of all, cursed enemies take increased damage from projectiles.

I run hatred and 'HoT + Assassin's Mark' when link 'chain' to EK.
When doing maps with 'Monsters are immune to Curses' mod, Hatred + HoA gives more dps.

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2L+1 Movement, Golem

.

Since no Lightning Coil now, I took the combination of Acrobatics / Phase Acrobatics + Mind Over Matter.
We need at least 30% 'Damage Taken Gained as Mana when hit' to make the whole set works perfect.


Mindspiral with 9% or 10% roll is common, but rings or amulet with resistance/mana regen/life are not easy to find. I've used dozens Vaal Orb on decent rings and amulets, only 3 got DTGaMwh mod. You could start with cheap unique/rare rings with resistance and life.
We must get at least 20% DTGaMwh from these gears.
You could also find DTGaMwh mod on corrupted shield, though you may not have DOT craft at the same time.


Socket 'Spirited Response' with at least 50 Intelligence Allocated in its radius to make it ready.
Then cry to active the '10% DTGaMwh' when you face boss or dealing with reflection. xD
You don't have to cry frequently, it lasts over 13s with 'Increased Duration' support.

Stacking mana for both improving mana regeneration and stand free mana pool.
With 4500 life and 800+ mana stand free, I should survive 1 shot at 5200 damage.
Then recover 2500 life (with Herbalism) with 'instant recover when on low life' Divine Life Flask, and survive another hit with 3200 damage... if I'm fast enough to press 1, xD.

About damage reflection and instant leech

For physical reflection(Assuming 18%):
The goal is to minimize both physical damage output and physical damage taken, and leech as much as you can.

1. Use 'Physical to Lightning' support gem to convert 50% of EK's physical damage to lightning damage.
2. Chaos Golem, 4%(lv12) additional physical damage reduction.
3. Arctic Armour, 13%(lv19) less physical damage taken when hit.
4. Mind over Matter makes mana absorb 30% reflect damage.
Absorbable damage maximum to 818 (lv3 Enlighten + Clarity + AA + HoA) for each reflect caused by EK's multiple projectiles. It's max 1440 if socket Hatred on Essence Worm without HoA.

5. Vaal Pact, instant leech.
6. Life leech by Non-physical damage (lightning/cold/fire/chaos) will make up for the physical reflection damage taken to some extent.
7. Phase Acrobatics 30% chance to dodge reflection.
8. The CWDT set, Immortal Call's physical invulnerability will be triggered frequently(3s cooldown). It usually protects you from reflection caused by repeated casting. And triggered Warlord's Mark gives extra leech.

For elemental reflection(Assuming 18%):
1. With Mind over Matter, you don't have to change 'Physical to Lightning' this time, also in case monsters with Physical Reflection appear in elemental reflect maps.
Just turn off Hatred, 1sec adapted, xD. As long as you have 75% elemental resistance, you'll be fine.
You may turn on haste to catch up dps lose.

With Assassin's Toxic Delivery and Master Leo's crafting for DOT defense(shield), we could have maximum 30% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time!
DOT defence sources are kind of precious in entire POE.

Ambush

With 50% critical strike chance, you could always do critical strike and more damage to monsters that on full life, most apparent thing is one shot one pack kill, just amazing.
This is one of the reason I remove HoT, I don't want HoT hit monsters then lose the advantage of 'Ambush'.

Assassinate

My EK has 51% critical strike chance, that's 6 base critical strike chance and +750% increased from gears and passive skill tree. So if the enemies are on low life, EK has 100% more critical strike which is 12 against to those enemies, 12 + 12x7.5 = 102%, that's over the 95% critical strike cap. So basically if EK has 47.5% critical strike chance, it's already cap 95% against enemies on low life. And critical strike culling. That's very strong for high lv map and boss fight, also helps to gain charges for Surgeon's flask.
Using Carcass Jack would cause 'Extra gore' effect which splatter blood around monsters if you do a critical strike. As you can see below, I was casting lv1 EK to Voll that on low life, every single hit is critical strike!!



Toxic Delivery

As I mentioned above, reduce DOT dmg taken, extra chaos damage are nice.
Thought the increase of DOT output isn't useful for this build.


Why not 'Unstable Infusion' and 'Deadly Infusion'

They are strong, but require power charges to perform the maximum effect. To gain power charges either require kill monsters(lack of reliable when boss fight) or link PCoC to EK(take a slot and skill points investment for power charges, default 3 charges with Deadly Infusion is nothing better than link a 'Increased Critical Strikes' directly), or Voll's Protector(half mana).
Actually there is one piece might work for this build with 'Deadly Infusion', that's Skyforth, but it would make this build insanely expensive, :(

Spirited Response

.
Inertia

Carcass Jack is the 6L before I can get a rare body armour with chaos resistance, then I may put Atziri's Step back to front.

Defeat lv82 Ambrius, Legion Slayer
Luckily, Ambrius does not slash 4 additional blade waves.
xD

You don't really have to use Rise of the Phoenix if you are familiar with Atziri's fight pattern.
Change to wand(no projectile speed)/dagger and use 'Slower Projectiles' support to reduce ek's range, thus avoid unexpected damage reflection by Atziri's copy(the one with a mirror).
Turn on Purity of Fire.
Cast Vaal Grace when fight atziri copies.


info about Atziri http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Atziri